Australia has already missed out on an early opportunity and South Africa has showed plenty of batting muscle ahead of their highly-anticipating showdown at the Cricket World Cup on Thursday.
There’s a re-laid wicket to contend with at Lucknow, with spinners expected to find assistance.
The pitches were dug up at the stadium after the Indian Premier League and the authorities even fired the curator when India played a low-scoring Twenty20 international there against New Zealand in January.
“It’s a bit of an unknown here,” Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell said. “It will be a fresh start for the whole ground, turn up on the day and see how it looks. We are prepared for whatever conditions come our way over the next few games.”
Five-time champion Australia lost its opening match to India, while South Africa posted a World Cup record total in its opening win over Sri Lanka.
India dismissed the Australians for 199 before Pat Cummins’ lineup had the hosts on the mat in reply with three wickets down for two runs in 12 deliveries. The Aussies could have cracked India further, but paid dearly for Mitchel Marsh’s dropped catch when Virat Kohli was on 12. Kohli made the most of his reprieve, combining with K.L. Rahul to guide India to a six-wicket win with plenty of overs to spare.
Maxwell said dew at Chennai made it difficult for Australia to grip the ball in the night session, and the spin was inconsistent.
“When you come to India you will be faced with a whole heap of different conditions, whether it be flat wickets that don’t bounce or dry wickets that turn quite a bit,” he said.
Experienced top-order batters David Warner and Steven Smith got a good measure of the bowling but were dismissed by India's spinners after getting set for big scores. The middle-order crumbled against Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin, who shared six wickets between them.
Both Kohli and Rahul watchfully played out Maxwell, but specialist legspinner Adam Zampa leaked too many runs against both batters once they settled into a 165-run match-winning partnership.
Marcus Stoinis’ experience at Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL could win the allrounder a place in the playing XI on Thursday, giving Australia a fourth seam bowling option. Stoinis missed the opening game because he wasn’t fully recovered from hamstring injury.
“He’s a big energy for our team and someone who is a matchwinner," Maxwell said, "and someone you need in these types of tournaments.”
South Africa got away to a flyer when Aiden Markram smashed the fastest century in a World Cup and Quinton de Kock, playing for the last time in a major international tournament, and Rassie van der Dussen also scored big hundreds against Sri Lanka.
David Miller and Heinrich Klassen also showed brief batting prowess lower down the order and showed that the South Africans have come to India intent on breaking their long, painful title drought.
“We have learned to play with positive thinking,” Markram said after his blistering 106 off 54 balls. “We’re known to start pretty slowly, be it in a series or world events.
“But I think there’s a lot of passion in this team to give our absolute all at this World Cup and see how far it can get us."
Australia knows the abilities of South African batting after the Proteas won 3-2 their recent series at home after losing the first two matches.
The new wicket in Lucknow may tempt captain Temba Bavuma to include left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi along with Keshav Maharaj – especially after watching Australian batters struggling against the Indian spin trio.
Sri Lanka gave South Africa a scare in the batting powerplay before it was bowled out for 326, with Kusal Mendis smashing eight sixes and four boundaries in his 42-ball knock of 76.
“We asked for a clinical performance with ball and didn’t get that, but individual performances were good,” Bavuma said. “We probably didn’t adjust early enough. Kesh (Maharaj) took the pace off and was very good, maybe we need to add spin options.”
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